Big data could power on-demand public transport: IDA

The IDA’s deputy director of Government Analytics Liu Feng Yuan floated the idea at the Smart Nation Innovations Forum on Wednesday (Apr 22), saying his agency is looking at engaging user groups to start a pilot. With big data, routes where express services such as this could be popular can be spotted, he added, noting that Finland already has something similar. “Why do we have fixed bus routes instead of flexible timings? It is because we didn’t have the data,” he told participants at a forum called Adaptive Transportation with Data Science.